COLUMN: Think Again – Premier Kinew needs to set a better tone

The government leader sets the tone of debate. Here in Manitoba, Premier Wab Kinew has the power to elevate that tone, or lower it.

Sadly, Kinew has chosen the second option. Anyone who tunes in to question period will quickly see that the premier regularly makes personal attacks against opposition members and avoids answering serious questions.

It’s bad enough when these antics take place during question period, which tends to be the most raucous and hyped-up part of the day. However, during committee meetings where opposition members ask serious and specific questions about fiscal policy, the premier and his cabinet ministers are expected to give direct responses with a minimum of theatrics.

Last week, Kinew hit a new low when he began laughing while PC leader Obby Khan asked a serious question about procurement policy on large infrastructure projects. Shortly after this, Kinew made a barking noise while Khan was speaking. If the premier of Manitoba acts this way while the cameras are rolling, one can only imagine what happens behind closed doors.

Kinew doesn’t limit his attacks to current MLAs. He’s even resorted to attacking PC candidates, including me. Several times now, Kinew has called me an “anti-abortion extremist” because I’ve expressed pro-life views in this column. So, we know that someone in the premier’s office is sharing my column with him.

Hopefully, Premier Kinew reads this one.

Considering this fact, I want to speak directly to the premier: Mr. Premier, you are better than this.

Several years ago, I wrote a column arguing that it is wrong for your opponents to continually attack you because of your past mistakes. I pointed out that people can change and that we should judge people based on who they are now, not on what they said or did 20 years ago. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone should learn from their mistakes.

I was impressed by the way you handled yourself on election night in 2023. You gave a gracious victory speech in which you took a magnanimous tone and spoke about the importance of working together. You even gave some helpful advice to young people struggling to find their way where you encouraged them to take responsibility for their own actions.

Your words that night were powerful. A newly elected premier who overcame his previous run-ins with the law encouraging young people to take responsibility for their actions was a wonderful message of hope.

Since then, however, you appear to have changed course. Instead of following the example that you set on election night, you descended into petty squabbles and personal attacks. Because you are the premier, other members of your government were quick to follow your example.

Premier Kinew, you lead a majority government. You have the power to pass whatever legislation you want, and you control all the levers of power. And yet, you regularly engage in bullying behaviour in the legislature even though there’s no need for you to do so.

When your own speaker sought to elevate the tone of debate by banning insults such as racist and homophobic, which is standard practice across Canada, you objected. During a subsequent CBC interview, you said that the speaker was wrong and that you were pressuring him to reverse his ruling.

Apparently, calling other MLAs insulting names is so important to you that you are willing to bully your own hand-picked speaker. That is shameful.

Premier Kinew, you more than anyone else set the tone in the legislature. I know that I’m not the only Manitoban hoping that you live up to your own words from election night.

Please do so now.

Michael Zwaagstra is a teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.